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With Genesee County's population and revenues dropping, size of Board of Commissioners could drop too
Published: Monday, July 26, 2010, 3:02 PM
Ron Fonger | Flint Journal
GENESEE COUNTY -- The county's population and revenue are shrinking and there's a chance that the county Board of Commissioners could too.
County board Chairman Jamie Curtis said if the 2010 census shows continued population losses and Controller George Martini projects another big deficit in the coming fiscal year, the case for reducing the size of the nine-member board becomes stronger.
County Clerk Michael Carr, a member of the county Reapportionment Commission, said he doesn't need much new evidence to convince him it's time to put a smaller county board in place.
The Apportionment Commission, which has the authority to make the change, includes the leaders of the county Republican and Democratic parties as well as the prosecutor and treasurer.
"I'm going for (reducing the board to) five," Carr said. "There's no reason in the world (not too)."
The county's governing board hasn't always been nine members. It was 17 members in 1970, reduced to 14 by 1973 and dropped to nine by 1983.
The push for a cut in the number of commissioners comes as the county has struggled to balance its budget, laying off employees and attempting to merge departments to save money.
Each county commissioner costs taxpayers more than $50,000 annually in salary and benefits alone, according to Martini.
The county also lost nearly 8,7000 people from 2006 to 2008 alone and another 4,000-plus from 2008 to 2009, ranking it the nation's third biggest population loser in that time.
County board Chairman Jamie Curtis said board members won't like to consider a reduction in the size of the board, which is the governing and policy-making body for the county.
Commissioners are elected from nine separate geographic districts, each representing an average of about 47,000 people currently.
"Would we like it? The standard answer is no, but you know what? These are changing times," Curtis said. "They could go from nine to seven and (have all nine of us compete (for jobs).
"After the numbers come back from the census, I think there's a good chance of commissioners being reduced from nine to seven," Curtis said.
Carr said the Apportionment Commission first would decide whether to reduce the size of the county board, then formulate new boundary lines for redrawn commission districts. That work can't begin until census numbers are finalized in January, he said.
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